Republican Senators Reintroduce Hearing Protection Act

By Chris Eger

A Sig Sauer MPX series, with a suppressor. Such sound moderators under the Hearing Protection Act could be transferred just like regular rifles or shotguns rather than with a $200 tax stamp and lengthy wait times required under the NFA. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Hearing Protection Act, to remove suppressors from the layers of regulation required by the National Firearms Act, was reintroduced to the Senate on Thursday.
Proposed by Idaho Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo and 12 co-sponsors from a dozen red states, the bill is a repeat of one submitted to the last Congress that failed to gain traction despite GOP control of both chambers. The proposal would reclassify suppressors as firearms rather than NFA-regulate weapons, which would allow them to be transferred after a simple background check rather than current much more extensive process.
“It just makes sense to ease federal regulation of suppressors, which are already legal in most of states,” said U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss, one of the co-sponsors. “Some of the most liberal European nations require their use to reduce hearing-related injuries. This bill would make it easier to offer the same protection to law-abiding American sportsmen.”
Introduced this week as S. 817 the HPA would simply